Chapter 986: After the BattleThe gigantic black serpent towered over the spatial storm, a red-eyed bat flapping its wings by its head. Beside the bat was a creature with a goat's head, sharp ears, the upper body of a human, and the lower body ?of an octopus.
The serpent and the red-eyed bat shot forward. With two existences as strong as superior kings and a monarch-grade lifeform in the vicinity, the death spirits' downfall was inevitable. Sᴇaʀᴄh the ɴøvᴇlFɪre.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.
More and more battleships exploded in the sky in blossoms of violet flame.
The remaining skirmishes finished quickly. Nightdemon flew away from the spatial storm, then released the forces from within the Shining Trapezohedron. He turned toward Zhang Lie. "How should we deal with these blood demons?"
While the spatial storm was in effect, Nightdemon had grabbed all the forces on the battlefield, including the blood demons. Now that the battle was over, it was time to decide what to do with them.
"Shall we kill them?" Nightdemon asked calmly, as if this were a trifling matter.
The blood demons jumped up in shock, then quickly knelt down and begged for mercy.
Zhang Lie thought for a moment. "It would be a waste to kill them all like that. The unclean world's forces are depleting rather quickly, aren't they? Why don't we send them there?"
The blood demons' eyes widened as they thought of the terrible fate that awaited them.
"No, please! Please spare us, we know what we did wrong, we won't dare do it again in the future!"
"We don't want to become like those monstrosities!"
"We were forced to participate in this betrayal against our will! Please don't send us to the unclean world—it would be a fate worse than death."
Nightdemon grinned, his teeth visible. "Do you have any other option?"
Hong Xi shook her head. "If you were worried about this, you shouldn't have betrayed us from the beginning."
Zhang Hanxiang's face was a mask of disdain. "Don't you think you need to pay for your betrayal?"
The frost spirit commander stared at the blood demons with stony eyes. "Shut your mouths. Don't you know how many of our forces died thanks to you?"
The betrayal of the blood lord and the resulting spatial storm that was created sucked away a part of the king of black fog, and the captain of the solar corps himself perished in battle. At least a third of the allied forces had been lost because of the storm, a toll more deadly than the initial battle against the death spirits itself.
The blood lord's betrayal hadn't gotten rid of the strongest allied forces, but it did cull the weak. If not for Nightdemon's timely response, the allied forces might very well have been killed to the last.
Wilbow shook his head. "The crime you've committed isn't something that can be washed away with just a few pleas."
The blood demons had caused far too many to die.
A third of the allied forces—four million warriors, out of a grand total of thirteen million, had lost their lives as a result of this betrayal, and the blood demons thought they would be able to resolve everything with a simple plea for mercy? Even if Zhang Lie and the other commanders were magnanimous enough to do so, the allied forces as a whole certainly wouldn't.
The alien warriors, in particular, were staring daggers at the blood demons. If Zhang Lie and the others were to let them go scot-free, morale would drop significantly—and they themselves wanted the blood demons to pay for their crimes.
After all, members of their own race had been lost because of the spatial storm.
The blood demons replied innocently, "We were all led astray by the blood lord! We didn't have a choice."
Zhang Lie shrugged. "According to the laws of the Milky Way, you're all accomplices. The mastermind might have died, but you're still guilty. You should be glad that we haven't killed all of you yet."
Being sent to the unclean world might be a fate worse than death.
The blood demons' punishment marked the end of the first battle against the death spirits. The blood lord's betrayal had been costly, but thankfully, the commanders had learned that the death spirit king wasn't so crazy as to try to send troops down to the second realm.
The outcome of this investigation was positive, even though the losses the allied forces had incurred in the process were unacceptable. Zhang Lie in particular was relieved to hear that the kingdom of Limit was fine.
The humans and draconians had suffered losses, but Hong Xi had reacted quickly enough that they were mitigated to some extent. The blood demons' betrayal was unexpected, but their response to the sudden crisis wasn't too bad. As for the other commanders' forces—Zhang Lie didn't care about them.
Given that the war was still in progress, there was no time for the fighters to mourn the dead. The frost spirit commander asked, "What are our plans going forward?"
The strength that Zhang Lie and Nightdemon had displayed had won the frost spirit commander's respect, and he unconsciously spoke to them as though they were his superiors.
Nightdemon said, "Let's meet up with the king of evil and the decaying kings' forces. I expect they've made quite a bit of progress in pushing into enemy territory."
No one could communicate with the king of evil and the decaying kings' forces, nor the giants of the king of chaos. Those three factions set off on their own toward the heart of death spirit territory.
When they returned to the battlefield, they found that the spatial storm had annihilated the bodies of the fighters that had been sucked into it, not even leaving their corpses behind.
The fighters were largely unafraid of death, but reclaiming the corpses of the dead and burying them in their hometowns was a matter of honor, one that the companions of the fallen deeply regretted being unable to accomplish.
Even so, the war was ongoing, and there was no time for the fighters to wallow in sorrow. Their hurt, pain, and tears would have to be kept for after the war was over. The allied forces set off again, following their original planned route, into the heart of the death spirits' territory.
They encountered no battleships along the way, but quite a number of shattered and dead worlds. Black sand floated in the air and made up the ground. The fighters grew tense as they walked forward.
Zhang Lie noticed a monster from afar, one from the world of primordial chaos. According to Nightdemon, this monster was known as a night growler.
When Nightdemon noticed the night growler drawing close, he underwent his bat transformation and flew over to it. The night growler waved its hands and feelers, as though trying to communicate with Nightdemon.
Zhang Lie flew over to his side, followed swiftly by the frost spirit commander and Wilbow.
Zhang Lie asked, "What's going on?"
Nightdemon frowned. "The troops led by the coffin-carrier, along with the unclean world's monstrosities, were attacked by the death spirits' battleships. The death spirits have them surrounded at the moment."
Zhang Lie blinked. "You can communicate with this monster?"
Wilbow asked, "Aren't you more curious about the fact that these night growlers are intelligent?"
The frost spirit commander took a step back and looked at the two commanders. "Don't you think we're focusing on the wrong issue here? Shouldn't we be more worried about our allies' forces?"